Mick's GeekBlog

That new chair smell

Warning – today’s blog will contain an unnaturally high amount of rainbows and lollipops.

I’m not sure where that came from. I’m just trying to say today was a great day and I’m going to take some time to revel in that fact.

The day started in the best way possible, waking up next to my favorite person in the world. After spending the better part of my life NOT having that experience, I’m very appreciative of it now. And after spending two nights in the spare bedroom because I was sick (when I’m sick I don’t sleep well and when I don’t sleep well I get very “tossy-turny”) I appreciated it even more. And this being Saturday, there was no hurry to get up.

Reading that paragraph during the editing process, I realize it sounds much more suggestive than it was meant. I also realize I’m totally cool with that. It works both ways.

All I’m trying to say is that when your day starts like that, the odds of it being a good day go way up.

Want to know how obsessive I am about music? At this very moment I’m having a mental debate about a Pandora station. This is a station I initially built around the Cowboy Junkies, and it evolved into an Americana, folky, sort of thing. Cowboy Junkies, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine, Todd Snider, that sort of thing. I think the Music Genome Project is a wonderful thing, and they do a remarkable job of creating a matching mixture, especially as you help tune the mix. Unfortunately, sometimes you have to realize your dealing with a computer, and there are limits to your fine tuning. I know that if I hit a dislike on the song that’s playing now, it will cause the computer to make some erroneous decisions. But I don’t know if I can resist telling it that I don’t like Edie Brickell and New Bohemians! The database needs a column that differentiates between the style, and how well the style is carried out.

We could call that column “Watered down for frat boy approval”. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

We got up, did some odd jobs around the house, and headed downtown for a brunch manitee. I realize I misspelled “matinee” there, but it’s really kinda funny and I think I want to leave it in. I’m digging on the idea of a brunch manatee, wondering if it’s a manatee having brunch, possibly with me, or if it’s actually a brunch consisting of manatee, where we all stand around with plates of crackers and walk by and scoop some manatee from a manatee shaped pile of ground manatee. Like those salmon-shaped salmon cakes you see at fancy buffets. Only with manatee. But I digress.

We got up, did some odd jobs around the house, and headed downtown for a brunch matinee. Brunch matinees at the Drafthouse are becoming a bit of a habit with us, and I have no problem with that. Today was a second screening of this month’s Cinema Club screening, The Bride of Frankenstein. I’ve seen the movie several times, I own it, but I’ve never seen it in 35mm, on the big screen. There’s something about the theater experience that just can’t be duplicated at home. Unless you actually have a 35mm projector and a 3 story screen. Especially when the theater is the Alamo Drafthouse.

Once again, when my day involves the Drafthouse, the odds of it being a good day go way up.

When I got home, I started work on organizing some new MP3’s. Remember that music obsession thing? This is where it hits it’s zenith. I have a rather large library, and every single file has been renamed and re-tagged according to my personal system. It’s quite a bit of work, but I really enjoy it so it’s not so bad. Music is food for my soul.

Speaking of music, I also received a surprise in the mail today, the original cast recording of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. This is from the off Broadway play, before it was movie-fied. It was a surprise because I forgot I ordered it, but that still counts in my book. It’s one of the only good things about being this forgetful.

By the way, I just went back and clicked “I Don’t Like This Song” on the Edie Brickell song from earlier. I feel better now.

But while I was working on my songs, the doorbell rang and it was my new chair. My back has been bothering me, from sitting in an uncomfortable chair while I write, so I decided to try one of the kneeling posture chairs that is supposed to be better for your back. Here it is… or just look at the pretty picture:

If you’re thinking about getting one, you should know going in that there’s a bit of an adjustment phase. The first two to three weeks are none to pleasant, as your body re-learns to sit. At first, you put too much pressure on your shins and not enough on your butt. You have to build up some muscles in your lower back. Seriously, if you’re considering one, look at this link. In the long run, it’s supposed to be much better, and a Psychiatrist I used to work with (in a former life, when I was a Psychologist), well, he swore by his. And his didn’t have the cool backrest thingy that comes in handy when you put your butt on the knee pad and lie back.

We got to see a friend as well. Bryan Kelly came by the house and picked up a couch and my old office chair, freeing up some extra space in the house and saving me from moving them later. Friends helping friends.

I got the chair put together, worked on my MP3’s some more, and then had pork chops. Bacon for brunch, pork chops for dinner… I told you it was a good day. Have I mentioned that my wife did a semester at Texas Culinary Academy? Yep, all that AND she’s a great cook.

How could this day get any better? Well, last week I was talking to my father-in-law about building a new desktop system. Tara and I have been living exclusively off of the laptops, and it’s getting old. I’m ready to have a real desktop again. My father-in-law reaches into one of his shelves and hands me a DX58SO motherboard (6 SATA channels and on-board RAID) with an LGA1366 3.2Gh quad-core 64bit processor. Sweet. I haven’t geeked out over hardware in a few years, and this is exactly the way you want to come back in. So this evening I got to go pick out all the other bits and pieces. I went a little overboard, but when you get handed something that nice, it deserves something special.

Like a new CM Storm Scout gamer’s case with a front E-SATA port, a side window, 3 case fans, room for 5 hard drives, . A CPU cooling fan that’s bigger than my laptop! An ATI Radeon video card with a Gig of onboard RAM. That’s not the best, but then again I’m not a gamer. A new SATA DVD burner, and 6 Gigs of DDR3 RAM.

Tomorrow will be a good day as well. We’re gonna go to the In-Laws for Easter dinner, and my Father-in-Law and I will probably put that beast together.

I hope your Saturday was as good as mine. I believe that ultimately, what it all comes down to is really just two simple things. Do something you love to do, and do it with someone you love. I love my wife, and I love our friends, and I love the things we all get to do together. And if you’re one of my friends that I didn’t get to hang with today, let’s try and remedy that situation soon.

How long has it been since you hung out with the Magnificent Bastard? Well that’s too long.